Thank you SO much for completing the survey, it was so helpful. If I could, I’d show my appreciation through an amazing cheese platter. 🙂

Lately I’ve been worried/frustrated that my blog hasn’t grown to where it “should” be by now and I started to wonder if I needed a more precise focus. I tossed around ideas, but ultimately, I don’t have a precise eating focus or style so why should my recipes? I’m not vegan, I’m not paleo, I don’t count calories……

I love food. I love real food, I love simple food. I love complex recipes and I love meals that require three-ingredients from the Trader Joe’s freezer section. I don’t eat perfect. And I don’t think anyone should.

So now that I’ve got that off my chest, it’s time to share this recipe I’ve been holding out on you a bit. It was one that I made (and we loved) but I wondered if it was good enough, or different enough to share.

If I learned one thing from the survey, it’s that you want more of those real life posts which makes me take a step back and realize that every post doesn’t need to be a perfectly-styled, super-creative recipe. It’s about the real food. The food that’s eaten after a long day at work and no desire to cook. Food that doesn’t fit a diet perfectly, because, your family probably isn’t on that diet. (I also learned that you really aren’t interested in product reviews and my favorite link posts – noted!)

So 2015, it’s going to be a lot more real. And a lot more life. (And a baby!!!!!!) And the food that goes along with it.

Lasagna soup is one of those meals. It’s a big bowl of comfort food, and I think your whole family will love it. It’s got classic lasagna flavors – but in a slightly different form. We loved it because it was really filling and satisfying, but also not really heavy either.

(I changed up my site over the weekend, so if you’re on a reader, click through to check it out! It was planned for a few weeks from now, but after some major issues last week, I decided to go for it early. I’m still working on a few things, and unfortunately crossing my fingers a bit at this point that everything works as it is supposed to, but it’s close!)

Enough of the tech talk, let’s get on to the good stuff. Healthy Taco Pizza is today’s topic!

This latest creation is another kid-friendly meal that I think the entire family will love. It’s hard not to.

I obviously don’t have kids of my own yet, but I have this laughable idea that my toddlers are going to love quinoa and kale. (They will, right?!)

Ok, that might be a stretch and while I’m still going to hold out hope, I do know that kids like tacos. And that kids like pizzas. In fact, everyone does – adults included!

Taco pizzas are one of those meals that are filling, tasty and pretty healthy as well! To lighten things up, I use a tortilla for the crust, which also creates built-in portion control. If you’re really concerned with the calories and fat in ground beef, by all means, swap it out for extra-lean turkey.

As the GIF below illustrates, you top the tortilla with beans, cheese, ground beef and then layer on the fresh toppings like lettuce, tomato, onion and a drizzle of sour cream. (Hot sauce is good too!)

Heat large skillet over medium heat. Add ground beef to pan and break up with a spatula. Continue to break up meat into smaller pieces as it browns, about 5 minutes. Add taco seasoning and cook another minute.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Toast tortillas in oven, flip after 5 minutes and cook another 5 minutes until golden brown.

Do you have foods that you are pretty much infatuated with before you even really really try it? That’s kind of how chimichurri sauce was for me. I’m sure I’d tried it once or twice (but nothing stood out in my memory) and I just knew it would be something that I really liked. It doesn’t hurt that we’ve been having a moment with parsley. We’re putting it in just about everything: juices, bean salads, seafood pasta…and then I threw a TON of it into chimichurri sauce.

Wanting to keep things really classic, I decided to serve it over some grilled skirt steak but after trying it (garlic! shallots! parsley!) we both started slathering it over everything on our plate. I think it would be amazing on a lot of other things: grilled bread, goat cheese, grilled chicken, fish or shrimp and even greek yogurt. <– seriously! It’s so bright, so flavorful, I can’t think of a thing it wouldn’t be good on.

It comes together pretty quickly – just requiring lots of chopping. And so long as it’s accompanied by a little wine, I find the chopping process totally therapeutic.

I’m currently a little obsessed with Gwyneth Paltrow’s new book It’s All Good. I’ve paged through it about 4-5 times so far. The recipes are great, the pictures are beautiful and she’s not bad to look at either. 🙂

I’m also coming off of a weekend in Vegas, a few days of being sick and eating out an insane amount of times. So I could use a LOT of “good” this week. Lots of good vegetables, protein, workouts and water. She is my inspiration this week!

am workout: 20 minutes of physique 57 (strength)

coffee: (duh) + 1/2 & 1/2 while I made my daily “to do” list. I never cross off as much as I would like to…

breakfast: One of Gwyneth’s (and co-author Julia Turshen’s) favorite breakfasts is avocado toast and even though it’s nothing new, I thought the addition of mayo (she uses vegenaise) was interesting. Verdict? Yes, I love it! I don’t know what it is that makes it so delicious but I’m hooked. I had a touch of vegenaise + a small avocado on 2 slices of sprouted bread.

dinner: While making dinner I snacked on a few olives + chips and salsa. Burgers weren’t on the original menu but they kept getting pushed back so had to be eaten tonight. I also had them last night at a family cookout and have a lunch date at The Counter tomorrow. Life could be worse and you won’t ever catch me complaining about eating burgers. 🙂 Broccolini + onion & jalapeno on the side!

Hi, I’m Emily

I spend my days working to ensure that low-income families have enough nutritious food and my nights doing the same, but for my family. I love playing in the kitchen, creating simple, fresh and nutritious meals. My husband and I live in LA (via Wisconsin) and are new-ish parents to one-year-old baby girl, Demi! Read More…